Lauren DiCioccio

I just can't get over the amazing amount of detail and realism in Lauren DiCioccio's hand-embroidered work.

18MAY08 (Big Brown)

13MAR10 (Richard Fuld)

22MAR10 (Brian Oliver)

See what I mean? The above images are from her sewnews series, which are entire issues of The New York Times encased in hand-embroidered cotton muslin. DiCioccio selects a strong image from the paper, usually one suggestive of leadership, power or communication, and embroiders it onto the fabric in a painterly manner, layering line and thread:

As news-gathering departs from paper form and is conveyed instead through the television and internet, the newspaper becomes a nostalgic and old-fashioned object. I describe the beauty of the ritual experience of newspaper-reading by describing the paper as a tactile and fragile object in the language of craft.

Green Parked Car

rushmore from afar

Another of DiCioccio's series that I love are her 35mm sewnslides, which are life-size sculptural recreations from her collection of 35 mm slides. Embroidering directly onto bridal organza, a very translucent material, DiCioccio allows the excess threads to hang down the back of each work. As she explains about this series: "I am drawn to slides as precious objects: the fragility of the translucent negative material and intimacy of the scale of a palm-sized slide are particularly endearing - I hope to capture this tenderness in my sculptures."

(Via please sir)